PageSutherlandPage's design for the Texas Children's Hospital is among the projects featured in "Houston Interior Designers: How Texans Touched the World."

Photo: Geoff Lyon, G. Lyon Photography, Owner / President

PageSutherlandPage's design for the Texas Children's Hospital is...

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The Houston Food Bank headquarters by RdlR Architects is included in the exhibit at the Architecture Center Houston.

Photo: Slyworks Photography

The Houston Food Bank headquarters by RdlR Architects is included...

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PDR's new headquarters are among the notable interiors projects in Archiecture Center Houston's exhibit "Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World," on display through March 22.

Photo: Scott McDonald Hedrich Blessin, Photographer

PDR's new headquarters are among the notable interiors projects in...

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"Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World" features 17 exciting interior spaces designed by Houston architects and is on display at Architecture Center Houston through March 22.

Photo: Sarah Rufca

"Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World"...

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"Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World" features 17 exciting interior spaces designed by Houston architects and is on display at Architecture Center Houston through March 22.

Photo: Sarah Rufca

"Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World"...

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PDR's new headquarters are among the notable interiors projects in Archiecture Center Houston's exhibit "Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World," on display through March 22.

Photo: Scott McDonald Hedrich Blessin, Photographer

PDR's new headquarters are among the notable interiors projects in...

Image 7 of 9

The Houston Food Bank headquarters by RdlR Architects is among the notable interiors projects in Architecture Center Houston's exhibit "Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World," on display through March 22.

Photo: Slyworks Photography

The Houston Food Bank headquarters by RdlR Architects is among the...

Image 8 of 9

PageSutherlandPage's design for the Texas Children's Hospital-West Campus is among the notable interiors projects in Architecture Center Houston's exhibit "Houston Interior Designers - How Texans Touched the World," on display through March 22.

"This is the other side of interior design," says Marilyn Archer. "It's not fluffing pillows."

Archer, a principal architect at Gensler, is the curator of "Houston Interior Designers: How Texans Touched the World," a new juried exhibition of commercial interior spaces now on view at Architecture Center Houston.

The free exhibit features photographic displays of 17 finalists culled from over 40 submissions from local chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the International Interior Design Association, the first time the two organizations have collaborated on a show. Archer says the installation the first of a new biennial series planned to bring more attention to exciting local projects in Houston and beyond.

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ON EXHIBIT

"Houston Interior Designers: How Texans Touched the World" is on display through March 22 at the Architecture Center Houston, 315 Capitol, 713-520-0155, aiahouston.org.

"My colleagues who are in (New York and California) are sort of jealous of us right now because everybody knows Houston's hot," said Archer.

Finalists were chosen by an A-list jury panel that included architects Margaret McCurry, Rand Elliott and Collin Burry.

Selected projects featured "strong architectural elements, a sense of place, and a unique expression of client's characteristics," said Archer, from sleek retail concepts such as the Do Bar in West Ave to PDR's bright, open-plan office space and the playful use of color by PageSutherlandPage in the Texas Children's Hospital West Campus. The new headquarters of the Houston Food Bank, designed by Rey de la Reza Architects, was a unanimous favorite of the jury for its budget-friendly interior that conveyed a sense of fun in addition to incorporating food elements into the design.

The exhibition also includes submission boards from five interior design programs at Texas universities and a Herman Miller installation celebrating Alexander Girard textiles. On Feb. 20, Margo Grant Walsh will speak as part of the Center's related "Legends of Interior Design" series.